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Berlin Cures

Aptamers....

...against autoimmune disease

Berlin Cures Holding AG

Berlin Cures Holding AG is a Life Science Company, located in Zug, Switzerland with an R&D-branch in Berlin, Germany

Berlin Cures Holding AG is a spin-off company founded in September 2014 in order to bring a successful research project to the market. A group of scientists from the Max Delbrück Center (MDC), the Charité Berlin and the German Heart Institute Berlin has been studying the significance of autoantibodies in heart disease and other autoimmune diseases for over 10 years. Gerd Wallukat from the MDC discovered these autoantibodies and described them for the first time in 1987. They have the special characteristic of stimulating cells via a highly specific signal pathway (so-called G-protein-coupled receptors) thereby sending pathological information and activating the cells in such a way that leads to long-term organ damage. The researchers have now found a drug (an aptamer) that can neutralize these autoantibodies in the patient’s blood. The scientists will continue their work at Berlin Cures, using their expertise to support the drug approval process and to identify further diseases that are induced or maintained by autoantibodies. The idea of binding autoantibodies with a highly specific aptamer is protected by two patents exclusively licensed to Berlin Cures for commercial exploitation. Berlin Cures is headed by a CEO – Dr. Johannes Müller – with both industrial and extensive clinical experience.